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U.N. Squadron
U.N. Squadron, also known as Area 88 (エリア88|''Eria Hachi-Jū-Hachi''), is an arcade game released by Capcom in 1989 that was ported to the Super Famicom two years later. It is based on Kaoru Shintani's manga of the same name that was later turned into an anime in 1985 by Studio Pierrot, and into an anime again in 2004. The game is a horizontal scrolling shooter in the vein of R-Type and Gradius. It was followed by Carrier Air Wing in 1990. Story Shin Kazama is engaged to his girlfriend, Ryoko, and is on the verge of graduating flight school. He has dreams of becoming an airline pilot for his fiance's father's airline corporation, but one night in Paris, his backstabbing friend Kanzaki takes him to a bar and has him get drunk enough to trick him into joining the Asran military, where he must serve for 3 years. And now there's only three ways he can get out: 1. He can serve his three year term, 2. He can buy his way out by earning $1,000,000 from destroying enemies, or 3. He can desert, which is considered a federal crime in Asran. Characters * Shin Kazama - The main character of the story. He had dreams of being an airline pilot and being married to his girlfriend Ryoko, but his dreams were crushed when his friend Kanzaki tricked him into joining Area 88. Shin is the fastest character in the game, but also the weakest. * Mickey Schymon - An American, Mickey is a man Shin befriends at Area 88. Mickey is a Vietnam veteran who abandoned his family after the war, because he was too used to killing people, and he joined Area 88. * Greg Gates - Not much is known about Greg. He has a big part in the game being that he's a playable character, but in the anime, while his role is prominent, he wasn't really a big or important character. He is the most powerful in the game however, but also the slowest. In the game, Mickey is the in-between character in that he has an even amount of speed and strength. * Commander Saki - The commanding officer at Area 88. He briefs the pilots on their missions and tells them what the payout will be for whoever destroys the main target. * McCoy - He runs the weapons shop at Area 88 and sells weapons and other items to the pilots. Trivia * There was another anime adaptation of Area 88 released in 2004. Both this version and the 1985 original were dubbed into English by ADV Films. In both versions, Shin is played by Chris Patton, who's best known as Sousuke Sagara in the anime Full Metal Panic. * The manga, original anime, game and the later anime adaptation each end differently. * The bonus stage, where the player(s) has to get the bombs off of a plane carrying innocent civilians, is based on a scene from the 1985 anime adaptation. * The other characters from the manga and the two animes, including Ryoko and Kanzaki, do not appear anywhere in the game (technically those two in particular do appear, during the bonus stage). Gallery Image:Area88logo.png|''Japanese'' Logo Image:Area88SuperFamicom.png|''Japan'' Super Famicom ImageUNSquadronBox.png|''U.S.'' SNES Image:UNSquadronPC.png|''U.S.'' PC Area 88 title screen.png Area88002.png Area88003.png Area88005.png Area88005.png Area88screenshot1.png Area88006.png Area88008.png Area88010.png Area88_Shin_3.jpg|Picture of Shin from the 1985 anime. area8820.jpg|Shin and Mickey in the 1985 anime hanging out. area8890.JPG area 88-6 (L).jpg Area88 flyer front.jpg|Area 88 arcade flyer Part 1 10000902.jpg|Area 88 flyer Part 2 10000903.jpg 10000904.jpg area88_1_19.jpg|Mickey in the 1985 anime. area88_1_08.jpg|Greg in the 1985 anime after getting shot down, who after getting fixed up goes back out to fight. area88_1_15.jpg|Saki in the 1985 anime. area88_1_18.jpg|McCoy in the 1985 anime. img187.jpg|Picture possibly from Kaoru Shintani's original manga. Uploader note:I don't remember where I got most of my Area 88 pics from. I've been collecting them over the years.